Latest news with #WisconsinLegislature
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Wisconsin Democratic legislators issue statement to Cummins in support of union amid strike
OSHKOSH – The strike at Cummins hasn't gone unnoticed. United Auto Workers' three-month standoff with Cummins has been escalated to a state issue, with 34 Democrats from the Wisconsin Legislature issuing a statement to the company advocating for UAW Local 291 membership. In a letter from State Rep. Lori Palmeri (D-54), signed by 33 other representatives, including State and Assembly minority leaders Dianne Hesselbein and Greta Neubauer, the members of the Wisconsin Legislature said they were proud to join the union in its fight for certain 'ideals.' 'Specifically, we are advocating for the workers' concerns when it comes to working on an expired contract, temporary worker language within the contract, and mandatory Saturdays,' the Wisconsin Legislature members wrote. 'As legislators, it is our duty to stand up for our constituents and support them in their endeavors for fair and just working conditions,' they added. Efforts to contact UAW Local 291 were unsuccessful while Palmeri's office acknowledged the letter was only circulated within the Democratic caucus. When contacted, State Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-19) didn't provide a comment regarding the labor dispute. An email to State Rep. Nate Gustafson (R-55) seeking comment was not immediately returned. In an emailed statement to the Northwestern, Cummins Director of External Communications and Public Relations Melinda Koski said the company appreciates the concerns raised by the state legislators and remains "fully committed to negotiating in good faith with union representatives at our plant in Oshkosh." "Our goal is to reach a fair and mutually acceptable agreement," wrote Koski. "Talks remain ongoing, and our next scheduled meeting is set in the coming weeks." Read more: Winnebago County public forum on UWO, Fox Cities Campus, future set for June 25 in Menasha Around 85 union members at Cummins' manufacturing plant at 1005 High Ave. have been off the job since March 18 over issues related to working on an expired labor contract, temp language and working mandatory Saturdays. The two sides met in person to negotiate a new deal at least three times, but union membership has rejected each of Cummins' offers. As recently as June 2, UAW Local 291 voted 46-34 against the company's latest labor proposal. At the time, UAW Local 291 President Ryan Compton said the two sides are tentatively scheduled to return to the negotiating table at the end of June. Read more: Oshkosh legislators to continue pursuit of full Municipal Services Payment program funding With headquarters in Columbus, Indiana, Cummins specializes in designing and producing diesel fuel engines and generators while supplying power generation solutions. The Oshkosh plant employs 129 workers while the company has more than 3,700 service locations worldwide and more than 600 distributor branches operating in 190 countries. As of December 2023, Cummins employed around 75,500 workers. Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@ and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @justinmarville. This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Cummins strike in Oshkosh: Wisconsin Democrats issue support for union
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Eau Claire city council unanimously supports film and television incentive
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – The Eau Claire City Council voted unanimously in support of a Film and Television Production Incentive Program and the reestablishment of a Wisconsin Film Office. The incentive program was introduced as part of Governor Tony Evers' budget proposal and the Wisconsin Legislature also introduced a bipartisan bill. Councilman Charlie Johnson is just one member ready to get more films shot in the Badger State. He says the proposal is getting bipartisan support because of its potential to grow the local creative economy, 'Bringing in Wisconsin-based production crews, Wisconsin-based cinematographers, and Wisconsin-based local hands to help build the sets, for example, or using local caterers. It is that local money that I believe the writers of the bill, that's being kind of discussed in the legislature right now, that's their primary focus. If a group of cities is coming together to show that we support this, at the statewide level, they see that this has the support it needs to go through.' If Bill 231 passes the WI Senate, it will move on to the WI Assembly. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
08-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Wisconsin Republicans kill marijuana legalization and tax increases for millionaires
Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature voted Thursday to kill most of the top spending priorities of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, including legalizing marijuana, even as both sides negotiate a tax cut. The Legislature's Republican-controlled budget committee voted along party lines to kill more than 600 budget proposals put forward by Evers, including spending more state money on child care providers, expanding Medicaid and raising taxes on joint tax filers those who earn more than $1 million. Republicans did the same thing in each of Evers' previous three budgets and had said they were going to do it again. Some of the killed ideas, like allowing absentee ballots to be processed before polls open on Election Day, have had bipartisan support in the past and could return in another form. The cuts come amid uncertainty about how much federal money the state will get as President Donald Trump's administration moves to drastically reduce government spending. Evers' budget as introduced would have spent about $119 billion money over two years, a 20% increase in spending. Evers and Republicans have been talking about a tax cut plan they both could support but have not released details. Republicans argue that most of the state's roughly $4 billion surplus should be returned as tax cuts rather than used to support spending on K-12 schools, the University of Wisconsin and other state programs. Evers proposals stripped from the budget on Thursday include: eliminating the tax on tips; increasing funding to combat what some people call forever chemicals or PFAS; targeted property tax cuts for veterans, seniors and people with disabilities; spending $128 million on new financial aid targeting low-income college students and adding gender-neutral language such as "person inseminated" to state law. "Republicans talk a lot about what they're against, but not what they're for," Evers said in a statement. "There are pressing challenges facing our state. Wisconsinites are sick and tired of having a do-nothing Legislature. Republicans must get serious about getting things done." Republican Sen. Howard Marklein, co-chair of the budget committee, said "popular items" could return as separate bills. Co-chair Rep. Mark Born said just because the committee was rejecting Evers' approach to various issues facing the state doesn't mean they won't be addressed in other ways. The vote gutting the governor's spending plan marks the first step in what will be a weekslong process of slowly rebuilding the two-year budget to include more Republican priorities. Evers can make more changes with his broad veto power once the Legislature passes a budget, which typically happens in late June or early July. However, Republicans have talked about taking longer to pass a budget this year, or passing only certain top priority spending bills, in reaction to a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling upholding a line-item budget veto Evers made in 2023 that extended a K-12 spending increase for 400 years. That ruling affirmed the governor's power to veto digits from a budget bill, allowing him to create new amounts and years not envisioned by lawmakers. The court noted in its ruling, however, that the Legislature could rein in the governor's veto powers in several ways. That includes passing a constitutional amendment that's under consideration curbing a governor's veto power and drafting budget bills in a way to prevent a governor from making such a sweeping veto.
Associated Press
08-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Wisconsin Republicans kill marijuana legalization and tax increases for millionaires
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature voted Thursday to kill most of the top spending priorities of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, including legalizing marijuana, even as both sides negotiate a tax cut. The Legislature's Republican-controlled budget committee voted along party lines to kill more than 600 budget proposals put forward by Evers, including spending more state money on child care providers, expanding Medicaid and raising taxes on joint tax filers those who earn more than $1 million. Republicans did the same thing in each of Evers' previous three budgets and had said they were going to do it again. Some of the killed ideas, like allowing absentee ballots to be processed before polls open on Election Day, have had bipartisan support in the past and could return in another form. The cuts come amid uncertainty about how much federal money the state will get as President Donald Trump's administration moves to drastically reduce government spending. Evers' budget as introduced would have spent about $119 billion money over two years, a 20% increase in spending. Evers and Republicans have been talking about a tax cut plan they both could support but have not released details. Republicans argue that most of the state's roughly $4 billion surplus should be returned as tax cuts rather than used to support spending on K-12 schools, the University of Wisconsin and other state programs. Evers proposals stripped from the budget on Thursday include: eliminating the tax on tips; increasing funding to combat what some people call forever chemicals or PFAS; targeted property tax cuts for veterans, seniors and people with disabilities; spending $128 million on new financial aid targeting low-income college students and adding gender-neutral language such as 'person inseminated' to state law. 'Republicans talk a lot about what they're against, but not what they're for,' Evers said in a statement. 'There are pressing challenges facing our state. Wisconsinites are sick and tired of having a do-nothing Legislature. Republicans must get serious about getting things done.' Republican Sen. Howard Marklein, co-chair of the budget committee, said 'popular items' could return as separate bills. Co-chair Rep. Mark Born said just because the committee was rejecting Evers' approach to various issues facing the state doesn't mean they won't be addressed in other ways. The vote gutting the governor's spending plan marks the first step in what will be a weekslong process of slowly rebuilding the two-year budget to include more Republican priorities. Evers can make more changes with his broad veto power once the Legislature passes a budget, which typically happens in late June or early July. However, Republicans have talked about taking longer to pass a budget this year, or passing only certain top priority spending bills, in reaction to a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling upholding a line-item budget veto Evers made in 2023 that extended a K-12 spending increase for 400 years. That ruling affirmed the governor's power to veto digits from a budget bill, allowing him to create new amounts and years not envisioned by lawmakers. The court noted in its ruling, however, that the Legislature could rein in the governor's veto powers in several ways. That includes passing a constitutional amendment that's under consideration curbing a governor's veto power and drafting budget bills in a way to prevent a governor from making such a sweeping veto.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will $100M Supreme Court elections be the new normal in Wisconsin?
GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN - MARCH 30: Billionaire businessman Elon Musk arrives for a town hall meeting wearing a cheesehead hat at the KI Convention Center on March 30, 2025 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The town hall is being held in front of the state's high-profile Supreme Court election between Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel, who has been financially backed by Musk and endorsed by President Donald Trump, and Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford. (Photo by) On April 1 Wisconsin voters decisively voted against unprecedented, massive outside interference in our state Supreme Court election by the nearly $30 million from the richest and second (to Donald Trump) most egotistical person in the world – Elon Musk. In handing Musk's endorsed candidate, Brad Schimel, a more than 10 percentage point, 269,000-vote drubbing, Wisconsinites rendered the nation a great service by humiliating Musk here and thereby driving him from the corridors of power and influence in Washington D.C. where he has been savaging vital U.S. government services and programs that helped the poorest people in our nation and in the world. Wisconsin also opted to preserve recent democracy reforms in our state by maintaining the current 4-3 progressive majority on the Court. Fairer and more representative state legislative voting maps and the restoration of the use of secure ballot drop boxes for voters will be preserved and the possibility of new and enhanced political reform is possible in the years immediately ahead either through upholding reforms passed legislatively, through court action, or both. But what can be done about the obscene amount of political money raised and spent to elect a new Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice in 2025 – as much if not more than $105 million – by far the most amount ever spent in a judicial election in the history of the United States? Wisconsin faces new state supreme court elections every April for the next four years and a continuation of such frenzied and out of control spending for the foreseeable future seems both unbearable and unsustainable. Voluntary spending limits for Supreme Court candidates with the incentive of providing them with full public financing if they agree to statutory spending limits is a possibility. Wisconsin actually had such a law in place for exactly one Supreme Court election in 2011. The Impartial Justice Act was made possible by passage with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the Wisconsin Legislature and enactment into law in 2009. In 2011, both candidates for a seat on the high court agreed to the voluntary spending limits of $400,000 each and received full public financing. That campaign was robust, competitive and the result was close, which is what you would expect in Wisconsin. And it cost just a tiny fraction of the more than $100 million that was spent in 2025. Unfortunately, later in 2011, then-Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature defunded the Impartial Justice Act and all other public financing for elections, Four years later, Walker and the GOP completely eviscerated and deformed Wisconsin's campaign finance laws. They did away with limits on what political parties and outside groups can raise and spend in elections, increased individual campaign contribution limits and, most alarmingly, legalized previously illegal campaign coordination between so-called issue ad spending groups and candidates, which greatly increased opportunities for corruption and undue influence through campaign spending. Disclosure requirements were weakened and, in some instances, dismantled altogether. In just four short years, Wisconsin was transformed from one of the most transparent, low spending and highly regarded election states in the nation to one of the worst, least regulated special interest-controlled political backwaters in the nation, akin to Texas, Louisiana or Florida. This current corrupt status quo will remain in place for the upcoming state Supreme Court elections in 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 unless the governor, Legislature and the Wisconsin Supreme Court take action and do the following: Re-establish an 'impartial justice' law for the public financing of state Supreme Court elections modeled after the 2009 law which was in place for only one election before it was repealed. Update and revise it to better fit current times and circumstances including more realistic spending limits and higher public financing grants. Establish clear recusal rules for judges at all levels in Wisconsin that clearly decree that if a certain campaign contribution is reached or surpassed beyond a certain threshold amount, then the beneficiary of that contribution (or of the expenditure against her/his opponent) must recuse from any case in which the contributor is a party before the court. Restore sensible limitations on the transfer of and acceptance of campaign funds and make illegal again campaign coordination between outside special interest groups engaged in issue advocacy with all candidates for public office — particularly judges. Petition the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the disastrous 2010 Citizens United vs F.E.C. decision which ended over 100 years of sensible regulation of unlimited corporate, union and other outside special interest money in federal and by extension state elections, unleashing the torrential flood of campaign cash drowning democracy today. These are common-sense, achievable reforms that, if enacted into law, would go a long way toward restoring desperately needed public confidence in the fairness, impartiality and trust in Wisconsin's courts and in particular, our Wisconsin Supreme Court which was regarded as the model for the nation and the best anywhere a quarter century ago. But it will take determined action by all three branches of Wisconsin's state government working together with the voters to uphold election integrity and curb corruption in a way all of us can embrace. Ultimately, of course, it's up to us, the voters, to hold our governmental institutions accountable and ensure that they work for us instead of for their own narrow interests and those of the donor class. In this critical season of resistance and defiance against tyranny — speak up, make noise and ensure that your voice is heard. Demand real reform and an end to the corruption of our representative government. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
